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Clergy of Laverna
The Clergy of Laverna consists of the worshippers of Laverna, Goddess of Thieves. It had its golden years in the First Age but after the disappearance of both the goddess and the two spiritual leaders, it fell apart and formed various splinter groups which focused on different aspects of its teachings. After the return of Laverna and her high clerics in 1017 AE, the clergy is expected to become prominent once again. History Origins The Clergy of Laverna was set up by its very own patron deity, Laverna, who gathered various thieves and rogues around her to spread her ideals of thievery. Unlike most clergies, it was led by two high clerics of equal standing: the male Izanagi and the female Izanami who in ancient thieves' cant were referred to as Duality. The high clerics wrote the Code of Thieves which most of the worshippers followed rather religiously even if some occasionally rebelled against the teachings as was usual among thieves. After the mysterious disappearance of both high clerics--who were Haruko Mizushima and Katsutoshi Kobayashi at the time--''and'' the goddess herself in the First Age, the remaining clerics and thieves grew confused. Having suddenly lost not only their patron deity but also their spiritual leaders with no officially approved successors around, the clergy fell apart over the following years and formed several splinter groups, each of which followed Laverna's teachings from different ideological standpoints. One of the splinter groups of the clergy eventually became known as the Dwarven Triad which emphasized trickery, clandestine operations and fundamentalist beliefs over other aspects of the goddess. The Triad didn't adopt the Code of Thieves, however, as they saw many of its teachings as antiquated in a world based on deception. What became of the other splinter groups remains unknown...if any of them even survived intact to the present day. Third Age Distreyd Era By the Third Age, few thieves aside from a few members of the Union Workers and Ravensworth Thieves' Guild followed the Code of Thieves anymore. Most thieves around the world saw the Code as old-fashioned and impractical in their line of "work" so they simply ignored its contents and teachings. Even the Triad seemed to drop the religious aspects of Laverna from the guild operations except for a few fundamentalists who did what they could to keep worship of Laverna active within the Triad in their own cell. By the time the Great Purge cost many Triadists' lives in Aison, the surviving Triadists went into hiding until they regrouped under the banner of the new Fox who ironically was also one of their earliest Foxes, Katsutoshi Kobayashi, who was using a different alias in the present. The Triad remained secretive while growing their numbers and although some Triadists still refused to follow the Code, Katsutoshi ensured that at least a few people within the Triad would carry on the Clergy of Laverna's traditions. Godslayer Era By 1017 AE, the fundamentalist members of the Triad announced their presence as well as the return of the Triad in front of a crowd in Reign during the Day of the Damned festival. They arrived to claim the resurrected Haruko, the ancient clergy's freed high cleric, so that she and Katsutoshi could lead the clergy to a new, prosperous future and maybe unite some thieves under their banner like back in the First Age. Haruko suffered from amnesia and didn't remember her past as Izanami, so the fundamentalist sect of the Triad who followed the clergy's teachings had to form a temporary alliance with the Union to take Haruko to Hidefall in order to protect her from the Clergy of Artemicia which was after her. Katsutoshi, realizing that they were being tailed by Gilgamesh whose actions had caused his and Haruko's disappearance ages ago, changed the plans and pretended to kidnap Haruko so she could regain her memories faster in the Clergy of Laverna's old hideout Malperdy which in the present age was located underneath Trinity Gask. Haruko eventually did recover her memories in Malperdy and excised Laverna from her body but was soon captured by the Crimson Coalition who had been led to the hideout by the Clergy of Artemicia. With Haruko now the Coalition's prisoner and Katsutoshi being forced to aid the Coalition, things looked glum for the clergy's resurrection. However, Katsutoshi put faith in the Triad to carry out the plan while he would proceed with his own schemes to ensure the same outcome from a different angle if the first plan was thwarted. Notable members *Haruko Mizushima - female high cleric *Janus Todd - necromancer *Katsutoshi Kobayashi - male high cleric See also *Code of Thieves *Dwarven Triad *Izanagi *Izanami *Laverna * Category:Factions Category:First Age Category:Libaterra Category:Third Age